VacationSelector
The wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind, Queenstown
QueenstownThe wharf at Queenstown with the Remarkables behind
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Queenstown by Robert Linsdell, CC BY 2.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Queenstown or York?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Queenstown for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Queenstown’s own page.

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on York’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Queenstown 20, York 14: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Queenstown 45, York 42: Queenstown leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Queenstown 12, York 70: York leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Queenstown 42, York 36: Queenstown leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Queenstown 97, York 62: Queenstown leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Queenstown 50, York 80: York leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Queenstown and York are level on 60.
Getting around. Queenstown 45, York 72: York leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Queenstown 28, York 46: York leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Queenstown 20, York 38: York leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Queenstown 14, York 38: York leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Queenstown 42, York 34: Queenstown leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Queenstown and York.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Queenstown
40match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Queenstown in July

6 °Cdaytime high
-1 °Cnight-time low
115 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
9 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
QueenstownYork

Where the figures come from

Queenstown has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

York has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Queenstown: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQueenstownYork
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriEnglish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number111112 or 999
Elevation324 m25 m
Main airportQueenstown Airport (ZQN)7 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureQueenstownYork
City population29,000208,400
People per km²-766
Museums within 10 km024
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Queenstown or York somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.